Development Monthly | #38 December 2024 | Wrapping Up the Year: Career Reflections & New Year Goals
Tis the season…
…Of rest and reflection – nearly! Looking back on 2024, our first full year as a reinvigorated AHEP has captured the imagination of our members and the sector, and in spite of the challenges we’re all facing, there is a new dynamism in our professional community which is inspiring to see. There’s been lots going on and it’s been heartening to have had such positive engagement with our range of professional development opportunities, so we know we’re on the right track in meeting your needs – and there’ll be more next year.
Our Executive Director Colin Ferguson has recorded a New Year message detailing all the amazing work of our AHEP team this year, so do watch out in January to hear more about the significant strides we’ve been making as your professional association.
The annual conference in March was a particular highlight of my year, and I was buoyed up to experience the tangible feelings of solidarity, collective wisdom and generous support being freely shared amongst delegates and members. It really made my heart sing! Next year in Glasgow is shaping up to be another conference to remember – I look forward to seeing you there.
Everything, everywhere, all at once
Lately my professional life has sometimes felt like an extended game of Whack-a-Mole, perpetually in motion, dealing with multiple challenges and crises of various shapes and sizes. And all this just to keep the show on the road, let alone make actual progress. I suspect I’m not alone in this feeling which is some comfort, but I hope that if this resonates with you, you are coping and, like me, have a good team around you to get you through.
I think some of the challenges we’re experiencing are still symptoms of post-pandemic life, and some are new phenomena that meant that we never quite ‘got back to normal’. We expected – or at least hoped – that things would settle down and they just haven’t, so I’ve stopped waiting for that to happen and am going to take a different tack. It will take some investment of time and effort, and I may still have to fight a few fires along the way, but I’m going to try to delve deeper into root causes of issues instead of just addressing the symptoms. Our professional settings have changed for good, and it will serve us well if we can adapt our world-view to recognise what’s changed, respond constructively to new demands, but also understand the toll this takes on ourselves and our colleagues.
We all have limited resources and we need to use them wisely. We need to make more explicit calculations of the costs and consequences of a course of action both at an individual level and within our teams and institutions, to make sure we are using our time, energy and funds to best effect. Increasingly this means teams will have to prioritise and also deprioritise, and choices will have to be made. We can’t keep doing everything we’ve always done plus all the new imperatives and make a good job of it – something will have to be let go.
So if like me you’re keen to put down the mallet and stop playing the Whack-a-Mole game, what can you do to get to the root causes of your particular challenges? How might you empower others to take control of their circumstances or choose a different approach? As we model the professional behaviours we espouse as AHEP members, perhaps we can strive to be an agent for change in our work setting, and to set a new positive path that acknowledges our current constraints but continues to make progress nonetheless? I’d like to think so.
In it together
There is huge power and solace to be found in professional solidarity, and our AHEP community embodies this in the spirit of generosity that underpins our networks. This will be even more important to our members as a source of strength as well as practical know-how whilst we face sector-wide challenges in the coming years. The reciprocity and mutual understanding that feeds our community and facilitates the sharing of practice and experience is a valuable and precious resource. When you feel heard and your experience is validated by your peers in your professional network, this sense that you’re not alone can carry you through some turbulent times when you might be buffeted by circumstances beyond your control.
One of the major benefits of belonging to AHEP’s professional community is being able to tap into your network which exists for you alongside your career, whatever role or whichever institution you work in. You will likely move teams and institutions along the way, but your network is the one constant that will support you throughout your working life. Your investment in these relationships will always be time well-spent for some time later down the line, or for help with the unexpected demand which will appear in your inbox tomorrow!
Take a retreat
Winter with its dark and cold days prompts us to want to hibernate, cosy down and lay on some fat to see us through to sunnier days. Modern working life is sadly incompatible with this natural urge to dive under the duvet, but over the Christmas break we can let ourselves indulge, and use the time to rest and recover. Just as in nature, we are seasonal beings, and have our times to grow, flourish, set seed, and regenerate.
There are many ways to retreat (as a verb or a noun), but none of them mean we give up or give in. Rather, an army that retreats from battle is engaging in self-preservation, and it will regroup and return to the battlefield with new tactics and energy. Retreating from progress can mean consolidating new learning as a solid foundation for further forays into the unknown. And at this time of year, to take a retreat from the world, its constant demands and busyness, and from people who drain our energy, is to hibernate for a time, to revitalise and then emerge back into the world in the new year with renewed sense of purpose.
So I bid you, take a retreat from your world of work this Christmas, and return afresh in the new year with the snowdrops.
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